Contents of Budget Book
Overview
Fund level summaries of revenues and expenditures and the impact on reserves with a
comparison to the FY 2024 revised budget.
Revenues Projections for each revenue type as well as comparisons with prior years have been
provided.
Fees/Charges Suggested schedule of fees and charges for FY 2025 with a comparison to current year
fees.
Expenditures A summary level overview of the total expenditures as well as comparisons with prior
years.
Debt A summary of future debt obligations including revenue bonds and capital leases.
Personnel Information on historical personnel levels as well as the requested and recommended
staffing changes.
Capital An overview of FY 2025 recommended projects and five-year plans for the various
capital project funds.
Details
Function, goals, and measures for each department. High level department summaries
of requested and recommended expenditures, including historical data grouped by
personnel costs and other operating costs. Summaries are followed by line item detail
for non-personnel accounts.
Revenues
• Property taxes remain the General Fund’s largest source of revenue. This budget anticipates the
millage rate will remain unchanged at 8.99 mills for the eighteenth consecutive year. A projected 7.5%
increase in the tax digest will increase the billed amount compared to last year.
• Revenues in the Hotel/Motel Fund are collected through a tax imposed on each room night occupied
in Smyrna hotels and motels. FY 2022 revenues saw a significant rebound over the previous year,
which continued to increase during FY 2023 and into the current fiscal year. As recreational and
business travel are expected to remain strong, revenues are projected to increase slightly over FY
2024 collections. However, with large expenditures expected for City’s upcoming birthday
celebration, a $494K use of cash reserves is budgeted.
• Emergency 911 operations are funded primarily by fees collected from telecommunications providers.
Historically, those revenues have been supplemented by a transfer from the General Fund. For FY
2025, the transfer is budgeted at $797K (34% of total revenues).
• Utility revenues in the Water/Sewer Fund are based on customer demand. Through nine months, FY
2024 revenues are tracking slightly lower than budgeted. The FY 2025 revenue projection is 5.2%
higher than the FY 2024 Revised Budget. Built into this projection is an automatic pass-through of the
Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority’s annual increase in January (2.5% in recent years).
• Revenues projected for the Storm Water CIP include a $0.07 increase effective January 2025. At that
time, the monthly storm water fee will increase from $3.73 to $3.80. Following more sizable fee
increases of $0.50 each in 2018 and 2020, smaller increases the last several years proved sufficient for
planned projects.
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